Summary Writing Lesson With NPR

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Here is an outline which can be used to begin a new writing class. The starting point for this ESL writing class is learning how to write one-paragraph summaries in a multi-skill English communication class that uses podcasts from NPR.

1. Purpose of class

  • improve the students’ ability to communicate clear ideas in writing

2. Short-term objectives

Over the next few weeks, you will learn many tricks to help students write better, faster and smarter.

  • Learn to write a summary by using FACT
  • Understand the structure of paragraph
  • Learn how to find you own errors
  • Learn how to paraphrase
  • Understand the elements of good writing by leaning the 6 Writing Traits

3. What is a summary?

Writing a summary is a special skill that requires deep thinking.

  • Find the main idea and ignore minor details.
  • Describe the main idea with reasons, evidence and/or details.
  • Use your own words. You can’t copy text. Paraphrasing is important.
  • Use four steps to write a one-paragraph summary. I call this FACT summary writing.

4. FACT summary writing

a. Focus. Find the BIG main idea.

b. Analyze. Take the big idea and divide it into small pieces. For example, take a listening story and divide it into smaller sections. That is called chunking.

c. Conclude. Finish the paragraph with a final sentence that tell us the ending.

d. Tighten. Make your writing better by editing grammar errors and deleting extra words. Also make sure the middle sentences and conclusion explain or support your first sentence. This is called creating paragraph unity.

 5. Review the Listening Material

Here is a podcast from NPR. This segment is about learning new things while sleeping. The podcast is here: NPR sleep and learn.

6. Make Notes

Listen to the report again, if necessary. Make notes. Don’t start writing sentences yet. Start jotting down ideas.

7. Draft and Rewrite

Write a first draft. make sure the first sentence – the topic sentence – describes the main idea of the story.

The next three or four sentences should provide details and other content that support the topic sentence. Add a conclusion. Then re-write to make better.